Academies: Gender Pay Gap

Lord Storey Excerpts

Wednesday 25th April 2018 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Storey]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of gender pay gaps in academy schools and trusts.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con)]

My Lords, we are one of the first countries in the world to require all large employers to publish their gender pay gap and bonus data. Reporting will help to shine a light on where women are being held back and where employers can take action to support their whole workforce. These figures will mean that academy trusts, as with all other large employers, can start to analyse the data and take action to close the gap.

[Lord Storey (LD)]

I thank the Minister for that helpful and important reply. In answer to a Written Question that I put to him about the gender pay gap he said:

“Academy trusts are free to set their own salaries”.


This is of course taxpayers’ money, and when in 471 multi- academy trusts the median pay gap was 31.7%, that is not a proper use of taxpayers’ money. Where some chief executives of multiacademy trusts now earn upwards of £400,000 a year, that is not a proper use of taxpayers’ money. Surely it is time for the Government to use their financial clout and to realise that with trust comes responsibility.

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Storey, is correct that academy pay is set by the trusts themselves. However, we have taken action on high-end pay. One of the first things I did when I took on this job in September was to ask officials to write to 29 single-academy trusts where there was high pay. Since then, we have resolved that 16 of them no longer pay the levels that were indicated in their returns. We have now also written to a number of multiacademy trusts, and in the last couple of weeks we have written to all trusts which pay more than £100,000 or which have more than two people in their trust who are paid more than £100,000. So we are alert to it, I am bearing down on it where we see excesses, and I will continue to do so.